


just gotta speak honestly

by thisisbroken



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Healthy Relationships, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, Such cheese, alcoholism mentioned, so boys in love, the alcoholism and the cheese is blatant self-insert sorry, this is so self-indulgent i might have died while writing it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 11:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11417028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisbroken/pseuds/thisisbroken
Summary: Just a short typical college!AU where Tony drinks weird concocted drinks, Bucky is a domestic goddess who scowls, Natasha is always right and we all adore her.





	just gotta speak honestly

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "What's It Gonna Be" by Shura. Dedicated to my darling love and light Jacinta, who motivated me to write and also introduced me to Shura.

Bucky’s head hurts, the lights are too bright, and some people are being way too noisy this early in the morning goddammit. A harsh shushing sound reaches his ears, and then an obnoxiously familiar voice, “Now look what you've done. You made him scowl in Russian.”

Bucky opens his mouth because that makes absolutely no damn sense. “Yes it does too,” the voice says, which also doesn't make sense because telepathy does not exist, Tony makes sure to tell him so, his boyfriend is kind of nutty when it comes to things non-scientifically proven. “Aw baby bird, I'm touched. You remember to call your boyfriend nuts while concussed,” the voice says again, “and I didn't read your mind, you said everything out loud, chickadee. Also stop calling me the voice. This is your boyfriend here.”

Come to think of it, the obnoxiously familiar voice does sound suspiciously familiar. (“Shush Tony, I'm recording here!” Whoever that sounds like Clint says as someone loudly snickers.)

As his eyes adjust, he sees the silhouette of his friends sprawling around his room. He tries to speak. “What…?”

“Oh, _Bucky_ ,” sighs Steve soulfully. Which Bucky appreciates, but doesn't really tell him anything.

“You rushed in, trying to play the big hero, only to slip and crack your head open on the bench,” says Tony flippantly. Which doesn't really explain anything as its only purpose is to humiliate Bucky.

“Tony was trying to cook, he somehow made the stew exploded, you tried to save him from the explosion, but slipped on the oil and hit your head,” says Natasha, matter-of-factly. Which clears it up, but still manages to make shame wells up in Bucky.

“Tony was squeaking and crying, it was hilarious,” adds Clint, helpfully.

“Was not, shitbird!

“Was too, jerkface!”

“How about next time,” Natasha’s voice intervenes, “we let Bucky take care of cooking, okay, котенок?”

“How comes Natasha can call you ‘ _kitten_ ’ in public and you barely bat an eyelash, but you get all flustered when I call you ‘ _angel_ ’ when we are alone?” Bucky is vaguely aware of the sound of his voice.

The blessed silence that follows feels blissful for his aching head; the sputtering that follows the brief moment of silence less so.

Another shush.

“I'm still recording,” adds Clint, helpfully.

 - 

_How they got there:_

- 

Bucky stares in awe and some healthy fear as the person next to him starts pouring one of those energy drinks that taste like sugary battery juice into a giant cup of still steaming coffee.

It's in the middle of his second lecture for Mechanical Engineering of the week, which starts at 18:00, and around 18:37, this stranger, who is almost swimming in an oversized hoodie, swoops into the seat next to him and starts on some lethal concoction.

As though sensing the intense stare, the weird person turns to him, and-- _huh_. Weird Person is _cute_. Bit of a giant mess, though.

Bucky is now looking at a mop of messy hair that curls at little at the ends and bleary yet expressive eyes (with the mother of all eye bags underneath, _does the guy ever sleeps?_ ). Pale, chapped lips quirks into a smirk at the incredulous look that Bucky assumes he's sporting.

"Don't worry," the guy says, "I spiked it." And then the cup is unceremoniously shoved underneath his nose, and _yes_ that is the familiar smell of vodka. 

Bucky is now completely flummoxed. The guy raises an eyebrow at him.

Then he started grinning _like a little shit who knows he can get away with way too many things by playing cute_. "Whoa, sorry, no need to look that murderous. Just wanted to assure your Russian sensibilities, that's all. I'm Tony, by the way; although seeing how pissed you look I probably shouldn't have offered you my name, not that into the whole 'being tracked down and murdered in my sleep', ya know." He _winked_ , before turning around and proceeding to down the whole damn drink.

The rest of the lecture is spent with him- Tony- typing and scribbling like a maniac and completely ignoring Bucky.

Which Bucky does not feel even just vaguely disappointed about, what the hell, he's just... mildly intrigued by the way that Tony just keeps on typing and scribbling even after the lecture has ended, completely lost to his surrounding.

Must have been that bioweapon of a drink.

 -

_Although, the true start is probably this:_

-

Bucky is staring, again. He's aware. He's also aware that he's staring at the same person. Tony. Who has turned up a total of _5 times_ in 8 weeks at that 18:00 lecture Bucky attends, each time with the same concoction. (One slightly more memorable occasion, he slammed it back and moaned " _I am going to die_ " before dropping his head onto the desk. Soon enough, though, he fell into the same hyperfocused trance he always seemed to get afterwards, so Bucky wasn't too alarmed.) 

Oh, and who is now sprawling across Natasha, one of his housemates, and matching her shot for shot. Natasha, who is one of the hardest drinkers he's ever known, and who he's unsure even he could beat.

And the guy looks weirdly small in his oversized bomber jacket next to Natasha, who is tiny.

 "Are you an alcoholic," Bucky finds himself blurt out, _which-_

And then he only gets to see a glimpse of Natasha's green eyes before he finds himself hit by an empty beer can.

Natasha scowls, seemingly ready to throw another can at him, says, "Shut up. Yes he is."

Tony immediately sits up to protest. “What, no I'm not.”

Natasha just looks unimpressed. Tony lies back down across Natasha’s lap, mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like “It's only punch, and I already agreed to go to counselling with Rhodey, okay, stop mothering,” a pout firmly on his face.

Bucky remains flummoxed. “Are you dating Natasha,” he finds himself saying. For some reasons, everyone at the party stops talking and is looking at the three of them, with intent.

“No,” says Tony.

“Tony has a crush on you,” says Natasha, “he's always whining about how you're ‘a total brooding hottie with the coolest metal arm who thinks I'm a total weirdo because I always go on a science binge right before the lecture where I get to see him.’”

Bucky has some justified fear for the way Natasha said all of that in a total deadpan voice, but he doesn't miss (no one can, really) the way Tony has blushed a charming red while flailing and sputtering.

“Wait, _you_  want to date _me_?” Bucky asks. Tony gapes at him. After 2 whole minutes of Tony gawking at him like Bucky was the one who routinely eroded his apparently genius brain (“What do you mean ‘apparent’, I’m a bonafide genius, what the hell, I'm getting a MIT PhD at 18 years old excuse you”) with a lethal concoction, Bucky grows tired of waiting.

So he just stands up, walks over to where Tony is with Natasha, and pull Tony into a hot steamy kiss that should erase all doubts as to what he means. Or, that's what he intended to do, anyway. He ends up tripping and sprawling halfway on top of Tony with not so much as an ‘ _oops I think I'm falling for you_ ’. He hears Tony laugh, and it’s a sound he feels like he can listen to for the rest of his life.

 “Oh my god, you're a total sap,” says Tony, still laughing but sounding somewhat embarrassed this time, strangely enough.

“If you braid my hair I'll cook you my family’s beef stew recipe,” says Bucky. He feels more than sees Natasha a tad viciously elbows Tony, hears Tony’s squawk and Natasha’s hiss in response — “Say yes I swear котенок if you don't say yes and I don't get to have that stew I'll release the video of—” and Tony’s “Oh my god Natasha yes, yes okay—” — and promptly falls asleep.

 - 

He wakes up the next morning with a boyfriend, who is curled up in his arms, though— so it's a win for Bucky (even with a cold and sore back for sleeping on the ground).

- 

A few facts about Tony: 

  1. His clothes are always oversized because he only ever wears clothes he steals from Rhodey, and later on, from Bucky.
  2. He usually doesn't attend _5 lectures out of 8_. One guess as to why he starts keeping somewhat of a consistent schedule when it comes to this particular lecture stream.
  3. He didn't know he had a type until he saw Bucky with knitting needles and a batch of colourful wool that looked like mini soft cloud all over his table, Bucky who had some white fluff sticking on his nose and loose hair gently falling out of his bun, Bucky who, when noticing that the boy next desk was staring, only slightly sheepishly shrugged and said “I didn't have time to bring these home from knitting club before coming to class.”
  4. (Natasha has always known that he would turn into _a total teenage girl with her first crush_ , though, because Natasha knows people and is always right, no matter how much Tony squawk like an indignant little hen over it.)
  5. Because he's Tony, he's terrified. (He's watching Youtube videos to learn how to braid hair in increasingly fancy way, _good_ _God_.)
  6. But Natasha said she saw Bucky felting a red and gold little bunny the other day, so maybe he could manage to swallow some of the fear and just grin at the rest.



**Author's Note:**

> And that's it for my first fic in like years, folks. Leave kudos and/or comment if you like!


End file.
